Syria

The Netherlands must "show grace and mercy" and bring back the children of Dutch jihadists in Iraq and Syria as quickly as possible, the special UN envoy for Children in Armed Conflicts, Virginia Gamba, said during a visit to The Hague on Thursday. The fact that these kids and their mothers are now just left to their fates is not only inhumane, but also contrary to international children's rights, she said, Het Parool reports.

The number of adult Dutch currently in Syrian-Kurdish camps or detention centers increased to 55 over the past month, according to new figures from intelligence service AIVD. Three quarters of them are women. They have a total of 85 children with them, some of whom they took with them from the Netherlands, the rest were born in Syria, NOS reports.

The parents of Dutch who went to Syria to fight in the civil war established a foundation with the goal to convince the Dutch state to bring their children and grandchildren back to the Netherlands, the Volkskrant reports after speaking with members of the foundation.

The foundation is called Achterblijvers, which translates to 'those who stayed behind'. It will be officially registered with the Chamber of Commerce next week, according to the newspaper.

The Dutch government will not help Dutch rebel fighter in the Syrian civil war Yago R. get out of Syria, where he is currently in a Kurdish prison. His British wife and their newborn son are also not welcome in the Netherlands, the Volkskrant reports based on information from immigration and naturalization service IND and the Ministry of Justice and Security.

The Dutch Public Prosecutor has lists showing that Dutch jihadists received salaries from terrorist organization Islamic State in its possession. These payslips were given to the Dutch authorities by the FBI, newspaper AD reports.

The lists contain the names of all people who worked for ISIS in 2016 and 2017 in Arabic and English. This ranges from fighters to people who did supportive work. The lists include a number of Dutch people, some of whom are currently in custody in the Netherlands, according to the newspaper.

The Turkish police arrested three Dutch persons in an operation against terrorist organization Islamic State in Bursa, in the northwest of the country, sources within the Turkish security services told state press agency Anadolu.

A total of four people were arrested, three of whom had a Dutch passport. They were linked to ISIS activities in Syria, according to Turkish media. At least one of the suspects is a woman who has both Dutch and Moroccan nationality. The fourth suspect is Iraqi.

Karenia J. from Zwolle died in a Syrian prison camp from illness and malnutrition two weeks ago. As the Belgian man she married in the ISIS caliphate also died, presumably on the battlefield, their two young children are now orphans. They are being taken cared for in the area, though exactly what this entails is unclear, AD reports.

Convicted jihadist Marouane B. from Arnhem is no longer a Dutch national. State Secretary Mark Harbers of Justice and Security stripped his Dutch nationality, a spokesperson for the Ministry confirmed to NU.nl after reports in the Telegraaf.

Children's Ombudsman Margrite Kalverboer is urgently calling on the government to bring Dutch children still in Syria back to the Netherlands. "There has been talk for almost a year, but not much has happened. The children are a year older and live under poor conditions. That is bad for their development", she said in a letter to Minister Ferdinand Grapperhaus of Justice and Security, RTL Nieuws reports.

Wednesday marks the final day of the Dutch F-16 fighter jet missions targeting IS. The Netherlands announced the decision on Monday, saying the six F-16s and two spare units need to be "available for various rapidly deployable units and NATO."

Another Rotterdam man was arrested on suspicion of involvement in terrorist-related crimes, the Public Prosecutor's office said on Monday. The arrest is not connected to the arrest of four men in Rotterdam over the weekend, suspected of plotting a terrorist act.

Monday's announcement concerns a 24-year-old man who will be interrogated in the coming days. Little was revealed about the suspected plan.

No weapons or explosives were found. In searching his home, several data collection devices were seized.

With New Year's Eve right around the corner, authorities decided to quickly move forward with the arrests of several suspects allegedly preparing a terrorist attack, according to broadcaster NOS. Normally, an investigation into similar suspects could take months, but in this case police were tipped off just days ago, NOS reported.

Amsterdam woman Sarah L. and her young daughter were killed in a bombardment in the Syrian town of Hajin, near the border with Iraq, on Friday, sources around the woman's family confirmed to Het Parool. L. went to Syria in 2014.

According to the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights, a few dozen people were killed in the bombardment. L. lived in an apartment complex where other families also lived.

The Netherlands has approximately 500 jihadists and several thousand sympathizers of jihadist ideology, general intelligence service AIVD said in a report published on Monday. "They pose a potential threat. The threshold for committing an attack in the name of Islamic State or Al Qaeda seems to have decreased", the AIVD said, NU.nl reports.

The Netherlands will grant asylum to 27 White Helmet rescue workers evacuated from Syria, in the midst of an offensive by the Syrian regime, in July. The White Helmets coming to the Netherlands are five families and three individuals, NRC reports.

The youngest of the suspected terrorists arrested on Thursday, was previously arrested for taking selfies with F-16 fighter jets at the military airbase in Volkel, according to the Telegraaf. At that time 21-year-old Wail el A. was already once convicted for a failed attempt to travel to Syria and join a terrorist organization there, the newspaper writes.

The Netherlands was well aware of human rights violations committed by Syrian rebel movement Jabhat al-Shamiya when the country started offering them logistical support, Nieuwsuur and Trouw report based on emails sent between the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and human rights organization Amnesty International in the summer of 2016. Despite this knowledge, the Dutch government decided to send Jabhat al-Shamiya logistical supplies in 2017.

The Dutch government did not ask its External Public Law Adviser for advice about providing support to Syrian opposition groups. According to the adviser in question, professor André Nollkaemper, the support offered to Syrian rebel groups may be "in conflict with the prohibition on non-intervention", Nieuwsuur and Trouw report.

The government will immediately launch an investigation into the NLA program, in which the Netherlands offered "non lethal support" to the moderate armed opposition in Syria, Minister Stef Blok of Foreign Affairs said. He called it "worrying" that the Public Prosecutor labeled at least one group that received Dutch support as terrorist, AD reports.

Around a fifth of the Syrian asylum seekers who are proposed for asylum in the Netherlands through the so-called Turkey-deal, are rejected because of extremist sympathies or because their ideals are not in line with Dutch values, Paul van Musscher, national portfolio holder for foreign affairs and migration crime at the police, said to the Volkskrant.

The Netherlands is considering giving shelter to a "limited number" of Syrian aid group the White Helmets, a spokesperson for the Ministry of Justice and Security said to RTL Nieuws. "Important conditions for this are identification, registration and (security) screening."

At least six Dutch women who went to join Islamic State in Syria and Iraq asked the Dutch courts to have them arrested. They are currently in Kurdish camps with 11 Dutch children, and hope to be able to return to the Netherlands in this way, AD reports.

Two brothers from Utrecht and a woman from Alphen aan den Rijn were arrested on for financing terrorism. They sent money to three men suspected of joining terrorist organizations in Syria and Iraq. The three jihadists are the brothers of the two Utrecht men, and the woman used to date one of them, NOS reports.

A 22-year-old Dutch woman is in prison in the Kurdish part of Iraq along with her 5-month old baby and her father. The Kurdish authorities suspect the woman of terrorism, the family's lawyer Taner Sen confirmed to RTL Nieuws after reports by NOS.

According to the lawyer, the woman and her father will appear before a judge on Wednesday.